According to the company, consumer photo paper prices will increase 20-cents per square meter and professional papers will increase 25-cents per square foot. It may not sound like much, but 20 cents here, 20 cents there and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Now, these are prices that Fujifilm charges its customers – places like Wal-Mart, Costco, professional photo labs and portrait studios. Whether you – the consumer – feels the pinch depends on whether these companies want to absorb Fujifilm’s price hikes or pass them along to you. In the past, most companies have absorbed the price hike, or passed it along by raising prices on other products, not photo prints, because the price of a 4 x 6 -inch photo is still something of a selling point.

How much longer that continues will depend on whether Fujifilm rolls out further price hikes or other paper suppliers do the same (chances are they will, given that commodity prices effect all firms). In other words, don’t take the dirt cheap photo print for granted!

Author:Greg Scoblete

Greg Scoblete is the editor of Your Digital Life. He has been covering the photographic world for the past ten years for a variety of publications including PDN, This Week in Consumer Electronics and Digital Photographer.